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Horns lock over sales of permit to kill rhino

By RANDY LEE LOFTISThe Dallas Morning News

DALLAS — Two worlds collide this weekend when the Dallas Safari Club auctions a permit to kill an endangered black rhinoceros in Namibia.

In one world, a legal trophy hunt helps fund an African nation’s well-regarded conservation programs. That view says losing one aged male would not harm rhino populations and would probably help in the long run.

In another world, wealthy Americans engage in a vicious slaughter of a majestic but critically endangered creature. That view says claiming that killing an endangered animal might help its species is just bloodlust prettied up for public view.

“This particular animal is being hunted because he is old and unable to reproduce,” said Angela Antonisse-Oxley of Dallas, who is recruiting opponents to attend a peaceful protest on Saturday.

“It is barbaric to hunt and kill an animal merely for this reason.”

She said relocating the animal and promoting ecotourism are better options. Hundreds of others have said the same things online.

Ben Carter, the safari club’s executive director, said wildlife science supports the auction. That should convince even those who don’t like hunting, he said.

“When people learn the facts, while it may not be something they want to do, they get it,” he said.

The auction takes place during the club’s annual meeting — “the greatest hunters’ convention on the planet,” the group calls it _ Thursday through Sunday. Venues are Dallas’ Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center and the adjacent Omni Dallas Hotel.

The convention is open to the public with an admission fee. The silent auction for the rhino permit closes Saturday. Similar permits in the past have drawn six-figure bids.

The protest’s Facebook page, the Black Rhino Rescue Project, launched Nov. 19. As of late Wednesday, 203 people had clicked that they would attend the protest and 336 had clicked maybe.

The page had 13,996 “likes.”

Antonisse-Oxley asked an often-heard question: Why not dollars without killing?

“These animals need money, not more bullets,” she said.

Chasms of belief separating animal-rights advocates from hunters are not new, but social media now make reactions global, instantaneous and often anonymous and personal.

Searches turned up hundreds of online comments against the auction, ranging from moral indignation to accusations of murder, genocide and savagery. A handful contained threats or at least hopes for a violent end to those involved.

“There’s been lots of controversy, lots of negative emails,” Carter said. “None of them had any scientific material. It’s all emotional — ‘How can you kill a rhino?’ ‘We’re going to kill you.’ ‘You’re bad people.’”

One reality is that maintaining populations, habitats and good relations with human neighbors is slow and expensive.

That’s why the Namibian government and wildlife agencies, including the World Wildlife Fund, the International Union for the Conservation of Species and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, endorse the auction.

To approve the importation of the rhino’s mounted head, the U.S. would have to conclude that the hunt benefited the species. The wildlife service has approved one previous rhino trophy from Namibia.

Supporters say an auction can raise much more money, and more quickly, than charitable appeals.

Namibia will choose the animal — a post-breeding-age, aggressive male — in a way designed to make room for younger males, perhaps aiding the population long-term.

Namibia has auctioned black-rhino permits to guides for resale to hunters since 2004 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. In that time, the species’ numbers have grown from 3,600 to 5,055.

Last year, three permits raised a total of $593,000. Carter said the single permit to be auctioned directly to a hunter in Dallas could yield much more than that. All would go toward rhino conservation.

The arguments led London-based Save the Rhino International, which has raised money for the species since 1992, to say maybe to the Dallas auction.

“Fundraising for rhinos is hard,” director Cathy Dean wrote on the group’s website. “We’re not just competing for funds against other endangered species _ elephants, tigers, polar bears, pandas — but against cancer charities, children’s charities or the most recent natural disaster.”

Namibia’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism, which owns the nation’s black rhinos, “has widely been hailed as keeping communities on the side of wildlife as rhino poaching has stormed through Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya,” Dean wrote.

Those arguments failed with Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

“I feel sometimes like the people who would do this must come from another strain or breed of our species,” he wrote in an October blog post.

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